The 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates have taken place among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.
Many forums, in which candidates do not respond directly to each other, have also taken place.
Schedule
In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the preliminary schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six debates in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. Candidates are allowed to participate in forums featuring multiple other candidates as long as only one candidate appears on stage at a time; if candidates participate in any unsanctioned debate with other presidential candidates, they will lose their invitation to the next DNC-sanctioned debate.[1][2]
If any debates will be scheduled to take place with a location in the first four primary/caucus states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina), the DNC has decided such debates, at the earliest, will be held in 2020.[1] The DNC also announced that it would not partner with Fox News as a media sponsor for any debates.[3][4] Fox News had last held a Democratic debate in 2003.[5] All media sponsors selected to host a debate will as a new rule be required to appoint at least one female moderator for each debate, to ensure there will not be a gender skewed treatment of the candidates and debate topics
Climate change debate
On April 22, 2019, Jay Inslee proposed that the DNC dedicate one of its presidential debates to climate change,[149] giving candidates a chance to elaborate in full detail on how they intend to implement climate action and achieve the goals presented by the Green New Deal (a progressive climate resolution proposed by Democratic members of congress in the House).[150] Recent polls of both Democratic voters and the electorate in general had identified this topic to be of the highest importance (for example, a CNN poll[151] found 80% of Democrats wanted presidential candidates to make climate change a top priority, and a Morning Consult poll[152] of registered voters nationwide found that 63% said it's either important or a top priority for Congress to pass a bill to address climate change). Despite support from seven other candidates (Sanders, Warren, Gillibrand, Castro, Bennet, Delaney[153] and Moulton[154]), several progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, CREDO Action, Sunrise Movement, Friends of the Earth Action, Public Citizen, 350 Action, MoveOn, Youth Climate Strike), at least two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate,[150] and over 52,000 signatories of a petition,[155] the DNC turned down the idea of limiting some of their debates to only one debate topic.[156][2] On June 29, 2019, however, the DNC referred to a committee a proposal "calling for an official debate on climate change".[157] On August 22, the resolutions committee voted to reject the proposal.[158]
Bullock qualification for first debate
According to the official qualification rules published and updated by the DNC respectively on February 14 and May 9,[20] and the rule guidance given by the DNC on June 10 and 11,[60] there was no official public release of an additional rule, that "polls based on open-ended questions will not be considered". This additional rule was initially just orally communicated between DNC chairman Tom Perez and the Bullock campaign in March 2019, and was only publicly confirmed via a statement to a Politico reporter on June 6,[23] but was never confirmed in writing by any primary DNC sources ahead of the qualification deadline.[159]
On June 12, the Bullock campaign wrote a certification letter to the DNC claiming that Bullock qualified for participation in the first debate through the polling criteria (as they believed an open-ended poll from ABC News/Washington Post should be counted as a third qualifying poll - according to the official published rules).[160] Had Bullock been ultimately determined to have qualified by the DNC, then 21 total candidates would have qualified by the polling criteria, which would have triggered the tiebreak rules, leading to Bullock and Swalwell being tied equally for the last 20th spot with 1% as the highest polling average and three polls with a result at minimum 1%. In that scenario, the DNC would either have had to accept inviting 21 candidates, or invent a supplementing final tiebreak rule (for example, drawing lots for the last spot, or deciding the further tie by their number of unique donors).[159] Ultimately, Bullock was determined not to have qualified for the first debate,[18] though he qualified for the second debate.[62]
Big Ideas Forum stage invasion
On June 1, during the Big Ideas Forum 24-year-old animal rights activist named Aidan Cook stole Sen. Kamala Harris's microphone while she answered a question about equal pay.[161] Security officials and Harris's husband removed Cook from the stage. After the incident, Sen. Cory Booker told CNN he watched the video and was upset with the interference saying, "He crossed a line, this election's going to go on and I'm really hoping that we see Secret Service and others begin to step in because that really could have been a horrifying moment. Kamala's like a sister to me, I love her and that makes me very upset."
Microphone complaints in first debate
Yang, Williamson, and Swalwell complained of microphone problems not allowing them to speak unless called upon when other candidates seemed to be able to freely interject at all times, though NBC/MSNBC denied the claim.[162] The issues spurred frustration from Yang supporters and prompted #LetYangSpeak to trend on Twitter much of the following day.[163]
Protest in second debate about death of Eric Garner
On the second night of the second debate, protesters motivated by the death of Eric Garner and the continued employment of Staten Island police officer Daniel Pantaleo shouted during de Blasio's opening remarks, and then entirely halted Booker's, disrupting the debate for nearly 30 seconds.[164]
Yang qualification for third debate
After Andrew Yang had received what he considered to be his fourth qualifying poll, the DNC revealed that qualifying polls conducted by different organizations would not be counted separately if they were sponsored by the same DNC-approved sponsor. The ruling was controversially disclosed by the DNC on July 30, less than one day after Andrew Yang had obtained 2% in four polls, rather than on July 19 when the second of these polls had been completed.[165] In spite of this, Yang qualified for the third debate.[15]
Poll inclusion controversy regarding third debate
On August 23, Gabbard's campaign protested what it described as unclear standards of inclusion for different polls for the third debate. In the campaign's statement, they alleged that certain "DNC-certified" polls were rated lower than non-certified polls by organizations such as the American Research Group and FiveThirtyEight, and questioned why only four qualifying polls were released following the second debate, while fourteen were released following the first debate.[166][75] The campaign further argued that the lack of polling was “particularly harmful to candidates with lower name-recognition.”[75] They called on the DNC to revise the set of polls it considers for qualifying, citing "numerous irregularities in the selection and timing of those polls," and also asked them "to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness."[167][168][169][170]
The Williamson campaign has also criticized the lack of polling since July.[169]
Craig Hughes, adviser to the Bennet campaign, wrote to DNC Chairman Tom Perez requesting clarification on the process of how qualifications were set and what those would be for the remaining debates. "To date, the DNC has not provided information on how or why its unprecedented debate qualification requirements were set nor what the criteria will be for the eight future debates."[171] Steyer has also criticized the strict rules for poll inclusion.[172][173]
FiveThirtyEight analyzed which candidates would qualify for the third debates if changes to the DNC's rule set were made. If all polls would be considered, Gabbard would qualify with 9 polls and Tom Steyer with 7 polls..[174]
Gabbard third qualifying poll for October debate
On August 8, a Washington Post/ABC poll was released. An initial report from ABC claimed that Gabbard had not received the 2% necessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, but the Gabbard campaign announced that she had indeed received the 2% neccessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, citing the Washington Post figures directly. [175][176] To further complicate matters, FiveThirtyEight claimed that it had received confirmation from the DNC that the poll did not count for Gabbard but the Gabbard campaign countered by stating that no official DNC ruling had been stated and that FiveThirtyEight did not name their source from the DNC.[177][178][179] As of this point, no official DNC ruling has been made, but it is important to note that previously DNC policy has been passed down orally, and only confirmed later by statements to the press, without any official ruling, as was done with the Bullock controversy above.
The confusion stems from the fact that the poll data was presented with two columns, one of "all" adults, and one of "registered" voters, even though the question was only asked to those who "leaned" toward the Democratic party. Gabbard had 1% in the "all" column and 2% in the "registered" column. An identical DNC approved poll conducted on the 1st of July was also located in the data, but it is unclear which category was used for the qualification for the debates, as no candidate had 2% in one category and 1% in the other, although FiveThirtyEight claims the above DNC source told them the sample for the "debate qualification will be the adult sample", and Politico used the "registered" column for their data compilation.
Many forums, in which candidates do not respond directly to each other, have also taken place.
Schedule
In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the preliminary schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six debates in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. Candidates are allowed to participate in forums featuring multiple other candidates as long as only one candidate appears on stage at a time; if candidates participate in any unsanctioned debate with other presidential candidates, they will lose their invitation to the next DNC-sanctioned debate.[1][2]
If any debates will be scheduled to take place with a location in the first four primary/caucus states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina), the DNC has decided such debates, at the earliest, will be held in 2020.[1] The DNC also announced that it would not partner with Fox News as a media sponsor for any debates.[3][4] Fox News had last held a Democratic debate in 2003.[5] All media sponsors selected to host a debate will as a new rule be required to appoint at least one female moderator for each debate, to ensure there will not be a gender skewed treatment of the candidates and debate topics
Climate change debate
On April 22, 2019, Jay Inslee proposed that the DNC dedicate one of its presidential debates to climate change,[149] giving candidates a chance to elaborate in full detail on how they intend to implement climate action and achieve the goals presented by the Green New Deal (a progressive climate resolution proposed by Democratic members of congress in the House).[150] Recent polls of both Democratic voters and the electorate in general had identified this topic to be of the highest importance (for example, a CNN poll[151] found 80% of Democrats wanted presidential candidates to make climate change a top priority, and a Morning Consult poll[152] of registered voters nationwide found that 63% said it's either important or a top priority for Congress to pass a bill to address climate change). Despite support from seven other candidates (Sanders, Warren, Gillibrand, Castro, Bennet, Delaney[153] and Moulton[154]), several progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, CREDO Action, Sunrise Movement, Friends of the Earth Action, Public Citizen, 350 Action, MoveOn, Youth Climate Strike), at least two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate,[150] and over 52,000 signatories of a petition,[155] the DNC turned down the idea of limiting some of their debates to only one debate topic.[156][2] On June 29, 2019, however, the DNC referred to a committee a proposal "calling for an official debate on climate change".[157] On August 22, the resolutions committee voted to reject the proposal.[158]
Bullock qualification for first debate
According to the official qualification rules published and updated by the DNC respectively on February 14 and May 9,[20] and the rule guidance given by the DNC on June 10 and 11,[60] there was no official public release of an additional rule, that "polls based on open-ended questions will not be considered". This additional rule was initially just orally communicated between DNC chairman Tom Perez and the Bullock campaign in March 2019, and was only publicly confirmed via a statement to a Politico reporter on June 6,[23] but was never confirmed in writing by any primary DNC sources ahead of the qualification deadline.[159]
On June 12, the Bullock campaign wrote a certification letter to the DNC claiming that Bullock qualified for participation in the first debate through the polling criteria (as they believed an open-ended poll from ABC News/Washington Post should be counted as a third qualifying poll - according to the official published rules).[160] Had Bullock been ultimately determined to have qualified by the DNC, then 21 total candidates would have qualified by the polling criteria, which would have triggered the tiebreak rules, leading to Bullock and Swalwell being tied equally for the last 20th spot with 1% as the highest polling average and three polls with a result at minimum 1%. In that scenario, the DNC would either have had to accept inviting 21 candidates, or invent a supplementing final tiebreak rule (for example, drawing lots for the last spot, or deciding the further tie by their number of unique donors).[159] Ultimately, Bullock was determined not to have qualified for the first debate,[18] though he qualified for the second debate.[62]
Big Ideas Forum stage invasion
On June 1, during the Big Ideas Forum 24-year-old animal rights activist named Aidan Cook stole Sen. Kamala Harris's microphone while she answered a question about equal pay.[161] Security officials and Harris's husband removed Cook from the stage. After the incident, Sen. Cory Booker told CNN he watched the video and was upset with the interference saying, "He crossed a line, this election's going to go on and I'm really hoping that we see Secret Service and others begin to step in because that really could have been a horrifying moment. Kamala's like a sister to me, I love her and that makes me very upset."
Microphone complaints in first debate
Yang, Williamson, and Swalwell complained of microphone problems not allowing them to speak unless called upon when other candidates seemed to be able to freely interject at all times, though NBC/MSNBC denied the claim.[162] The issues spurred frustration from Yang supporters and prompted #LetYangSpeak to trend on Twitter much of the following day.[163]
Protest in second debate about death of Eric Garner
On the second night of the second debate, protesters motivated by the death of Eric Garner and the continued employment of Staten Island police officer Daniel Pantaleo shouted during de Blasio's opening remarks, and then entirely halted Booker's, disrupting the debate for nearly 30 seconds.[164]
Yang qualification for third debate
After Andrew Yang had received what he considered to be his fourth qualifying poll, the DNC revealed that qualifying polls conducted by different organizations would not be counted separately if they were sponsored by the same DNC-approved sponsor. The ruling was controversially disclosed by the DNC on July 30, less than one day after Andrew Yang had obtained 2% in four polls, rather than on July 19 when the second of these polls had been completed.[165] In spite of this, Yang qualified for the third debate.[15]
Poll inclusion controversy regarding third debate
On August 23, Gabbard's campaign protested what it described as unclear standards of inclusion for different polls for the third debate. In the campaign's statement, they alleged that certain "DNC-certified" polls were rated lower than non-certified polls by organizations such as the American Research Group and FiveThirtyEight, and questioned why only four qualifying polls were released following the second debate, while fourteen were released following the first debate.[166][75] The campaign further argued that the lack of polling was “particularly harmful to candidates with lower name-recognition.”[75] They called on the DNC to revise the set of polls it considers for qualifying, citing "numerous irregularities in the selection and timing of those polls," and also asked them "to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness."[167][168][169][170]
The Williamson campaign has also criticized the lack of polling since July.[169]
Craig Hughes, adviser to the Bennet campaign, wrote to DNC Chairman Tom Perez requesting clarification on the process of how qualifications were set and what those would be for the remaining debates. "To date, the DNC has not provided information on how or why its unprecedented debate qualification requirements were set nor what the criteria will be for the eight future debates."[171] Steyer has also criticized the strict rules for poll inclusion.[172][173]
FiveThirtyEight analyzed which candidates would qualify for the third debates if changes to the DNC's rule set were made. If all polls would be considered, Gabbard would qualify with 9 polls and Tom Steyer with 7 polls..[174]
Gabbard third qualifying poll for October debate
On August 8, a Washington Post/ABC poll was released. An initial report from ABC claimed that Gabbard had not received the 2% necessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, but the Gabbard campaign announced that she had indeed received the 2% neccessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, citing the Washington Post figures directly. [175][176] To further complicate matters, FiveThirtyEight claimed that it had received confirmation from the DNC that the poll did not count for Gabbard but the Gabbard campaign countered by stating that no official DNC ruling had been stated and that FiveThirtyEight did not name their source from the DNC.[177][178][179] As of this point, no official DNC ruling has been made, but it is important to note that previously DNC policy has been passed down orally, and only confirmed later by statements to the press, without any official ruling, as was done with the Bullock controversy above.
The confusion stems from the fact that the poll data was presented with two columns, one of "all" adults, and one of "registered" voters, even though the question was only asked to those who "leaned" toward the Democratic party. Gabbard had 1% in the "all" column and 2% in the "registered" column. An identical DNC approved poll conducted on the 1st of July was also located in the data, but it is unclear which category was used for the qualification for the debates, as no candidate had 2% in one category and 1% in the other, although FiveThirtyEight claims the above DNC source told them the sample for the "debate qualification will be the adult sample", and Politico used the "registered" column for their data compilation.
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